<p>If you visit any small college during the summer, of course, all that will distract your attention will be the paint literally drying on the sides of buildings. While Williams and Amherst have been pouring money into questionable building projects, Wesleyan has been putting its money into program. Today, thanks to major investments in graduate programs, Wesleyan attracts three times as much National Science Foundation money as Amherst or Williams.</p>
<p>That translates into more research opportunities for undergraduates; more access to professors working on publishable work all year-round – not just during summer breaks; and, more resume-boosting publishing opportunities for you. </p>
<p>Secondly, the Ivy League is far from uniform in terms of fit and general atmosphere and at most, what your father is describing is a general rift between the northern New England “bro” culture of winter carnivals and prep school athletics and the more progressive face of academia pioneered by Brown and Wesleyan. </p>
<p>Wesleyan and Brown developed along very similar lines as flagship sectarian colleges and became increasingly secularized as the United States in general began to expect more from its elite colleges than simply reproducing the same “gentleman athletes” of years past. They began eliminating distribution requirements and experimenting with alternatives to traditional grading back in the sixties and kick-started the quest to diversify elite college student bodies.</p>
<p>Wesleyan pioneered in placing the performing arts on the same footing as science, the humanities and social sciences, the traditional" three legged stool" of the liberal arts and sciences and today the results can be seen in venues such as Broadway and Hollywood. Six Wesleyan graduates have recently been nominated for Emmy Awards.</p>
<p>Obviously, a place that encapsulates a challenging artistic, social and laboratory science milieu isn’t necessarily for everyone. If you want to avoid people who consider themselves environmental activists or “fair wage” activists or who are otherwise “out of the mainstream”, there are plenty of places to choose from in today’s political climate.</p>